Dough former



y 5, 1953 T. E. BELSHAW ET AL 2,637,282

noucn FORMER Filed Aug.- 6. 1948 2 SHEETS-SHEET l THOMAS E. BELSHAW.

, aWA TER Q ELSHAW u \6 (Ittorneg y 1953 1-. E. BELSHAW EI'AL 2,637,282

DOUGH FORMER Filed Aug. e. 1948 FIG-.3

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 r-ql/ Summer! OMAS E. BELSHAW a LTER R. ELSI-IAW attorney Patented May 5, 1953 UNITED OFFICE DOUGH FORMER Thomas E. Belshaw and Walter R. Belshaw, Seattle, Wash.

Application August 6, 1948, Serial No. 42,788

1 Claim.

The present invention relates to a dough former and more particularly to a dough former adapted for the making of non-yeast doughnuts, and which former is simple in construction, light in weight, and small and compact enough to be sold for and used in the ordinary household.

At the present time, there is not in the art a dough former that has the mechanical advantages of the commercial doughnut machines, such as measuring of the dough for each doughnut and positive feed from a hopper.

Having in mind these lacks of the prior art, the objects of the present invention are to design a dough former that has few parts, is easy to clean, is compact, that may be built in small or large sizes, that may be easily made, and that when sold will be so inexpensive as to be within the reach of the ordinary household.

One form which our invention may assume is exemplified in the following description and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. l is an elevational view of the dough former.

Fig. 2 is a diametrical section on the axis of the former.

Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3--3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2.

Figs. 5 to 10, inclusive, are schematic views showing various stages in the operation of the former.

Referring to Figs. 1 to 4., inclusive, of the drawings, the relationship of the parts of the former is as follows. The former is provided with a hopper I for the reception of a quantity of dough ready and prepared for forming into doughnuts. The hopper tapers downwardly to a valve chamber 2 through which the dough passes for measuring and forming as it is discharged. This chamber is -formed with the inlet opening 3 which is the junction of the hopper and the chamber, and a discharge opening 4 which is formed in a transverse plate 5 by the cylinder 6 placed therethrough. Through the hopper and valve chamber is placed a rod I. In the inlet of the chamber and secured to the rod I is an extrusion valve-seat 8 which is in the form of a solid disc. Loosely carried on the rod I and in the chamber is an extrusion valve 9 which is in the form of an apertured disc. The edges of the valve disc 9 fit easily against the inside wall of the valve chamber. When the valve 9 contacts the seat 8, apertures I ii in the valve are closed by theseat. Secured to the lower end of the rod 1 is a forming piston II that moves in and out of the cylinder 6. Carried above the piston II is a stop I2 movable with the rod I, which stop in its upward movement, positions the valve 9 so that, as the valve-seat 8 moves downward and contacts the valve, the valve chamber will be cut ofi from the hopper and a quantity of dough will be measured for discharge. Accordingly, the valve and valve-seat may be considered as together forming a check valve.

Secured to the rim of the hopper I are the ends of a bail [3. The central portion of the bail is formed with a circular opening M which communicates with the edge of the bail by means of a slot I5. The slot I5 is of a width to easily accommodate the passage of the rod I. The opening I4 is larger in diameter than the width of the slot I5, and accommodates a sleeve I6 that slides on the rod I. Below the sleeve I6 is a stop I'I, secured to the rod I, that limits the downward movement of the sleeve I6. The body of the sleeve It carries a lug I8, and spaced above the lug a distance equal to the thickness of the bail around the opening I4 is a rin l9. Seated on the upper side of the ring I9 is a look ring 20. The lock ring 20 is held against the sleeve ring I 9 by means of a spring 2| that bears on one end against the lock ring and on the other end against the under side of a handle 22 secured to the upper end of the rod I. The lock ring 20 has formed therewith a detent 23 that extends downwardly through and below a notch 24 formed in the sleeve ring I9. This notch 24 in the sleeve ring is offset around the sleeve from the lug I8 formed on the body of the sleeve. The lug l8 and the detent 23 are of a width to enter in the bail slot I5.

The rod I and the parts mounted thereon are placed in the hopper I and secured to the bail I3 by sliding the portion of the rod I below the sleeve stop I'I through the bail slot l5 into the bail opening I 4. The rod 7 is then lowered so that the sleeve I B enters the bail opening I4, the sleeve lug I8 passes downwardly through the bail slot I5, and the sleeve ring I 3 seats upon the top surface of the bail. As the rod I is thus lowered, the piston II enters the sleeve 6. With the sleeve ring I 9 seated on the bail, the handle 22 is turned until the detent 23 of the lock ring 20 enters the bail slot I5 under the urging of the spring 2I. The rod assembly i then secured in place until the locking ring 23 is raised to withdraw the detent 23 from the bail slot I5 to allow rotation of the rod assembly to bring the sleeve lug I8 into registry with the bail slot I5.

With the dough former assembled and dough in the hopper, the rod I may be reciprocated by inthe hopper l, closure of the valve ll with the valve e'i, piston M will leave the cylind placing the palm of the hand on the top of the handle 22, and two fingers on each side of the sleeve [6 and in under the bail, and gripping the hand to compress the spring 2| to force the rod 7 down and the piston l I down in the sleeve 6.

The operation of the device in forming a doughnut is shown schematically in Figs. 5 to 10, inclusive. Figure 5 shows the hopper I and the valve chamber 2; full of dough 25, and the valve seat 3, valve 9, and piston H in their upper, or raised, position. The piston H and valve seat 8 are held in position by being secured to the rod 1, and the valve 9, loosely sliding on the rod l, is held in this upper position by the stop [2 located above the piston l I. As the rod I carries the valve seat 3 and the piston ll downward, as in Fig. 6, the valve 9 will slide on the rod 7, dough will be pulled into the piston cylinder and the valve 9 will engage the seat 3 to out off the dough in the valve chamber 2 from the dough as in Fig. '7. At the point of and further downward movement-of piston, valve seat and valve will extrude dough by the piston H, as in Fig. 8. The downward movement of the rod I with its associated is limited compression of the spring 2| beneath the handie 22.

As the rod then moves upward, the piston ii 4 the stop I! coming against the sleeve 15 which is secured in the bail 13 of the hopper I. The device in this position, Fig. 10, is then ready for another cycle, as in Fig. 1.

Having thus described our invention, we claim:

In a dough former, a hopper providing a valve chamber having an inlet and outlet, a rod extending through the chamber, a piston mounted on the outlet end of the rod for opening and. closing the outlet, 2. stop on the rod in the chamher and spaced from the piston, a check valve in the chamber including as complementing parts a valve and valve seat, one secured to the rod further from the piston than the stop and the other floating between the stop and. the said secured part, and means for imparting reciproeating movement of the rod relative to the chamber walls whereby the check valve automatically closes during each outlet opening stroke of the piston to isolate a charge of dough and forcibly dispense the same in a ring-like from the chamber and between the outlet and the piston and whereby the valve automatically opens during each outlet closing stroke of the piston to replenish the foregoing dispensed charge of dough from the hopper.

THOMAS E. BELEHAW. WALTER R. BELSI-IAW.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 534,156 Hueg Feb. 12, 1595 1,571,268 Hein Feb. 2, 1326 1,948,022 Carpenter Feb. 29, 193i 2,170,718 Humphries Aug. 22, 1939 2,210,278 Carpenter Aug. 6, 19 2,447,182 Hutchinson Aug. 17, 1928 

